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^^ ■ .^-^,^J^^ ;^^ =^ l g^ ^r^g-^^^ 



FOURTH OF JULY 



ORATION, 



1877 



D\^rn:L v. TAYLOi; 




Class __^i:2:^ 



HISTORICAL ORATION, 



DELIVERED AT 



CHAMPLAIN, N. Y., 



-:ox the:- 



FOURTH OF JULY, 1877 



:by:- 



DAOTEL T. TAYLOK, 



[published by request of citizens.] 



BOSTON: 
BEPOSITORY PRESS, 47 CORNHILL. 

1880. 



24245 



e^T-a- 




DEDICATION. 



__^ To the citizens of my native town, Cham- 
plain, N. Y., whose pleasure and welfare is 
thereby sought; especially those persons loho 
have generously assisted to defray the expense 
of its issue; and particularly to our honored 
and venerable townsman, Lorenzo Kellogg^ whose 
friendly action has been chiefly instrumental in 
its publication, this little work, with many kind 
wishes for their prosperity and happiness, is 
respectfully dedicated by 

THE AUTHOK. 



FOURTH OF JULY ORATION. 



Mr. President : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : Citizens : — 

Standing face to face under these benign 
skies and beneatli our starry banner, the flag 
of a hundred years, with joyful reverence and 
sincere thanksgiving to the stupendous Artificer 
of heaven and eartii, the Giver and Preserver 
—of our lives, be it ours to celebrate with one ac- 
cord the birthday of a free and happy nation. 
Fled away is the red man's reign of a thousand 
years ; the white face is monarch of land and 
lake. And while you listen, I will tell you 
the story of how this change transpired. 

It was on the morning of the 4th day of July, 
in 1609, that Captain Samuel de Champlain, a 
Frenchman by birth, and then governor of 
Canada, accompanied by sixty painted warriors 
of the Algonquin and Huron tribes, embarked 
in twenty-four birch-bark canoes, came up the 
river below where now stands Fort Montsrom- 
ery, and entered the waters of our beautiful 
lake. The appearance of the pale face was the 
signal for a new era in all these lands ; thence- 
forth the march of navigation, commerce, and 
civilization through this valley began, nor 
ceases with the years. 

Champlain brought with him the two pacifi- 
cators of barbarianism, namely, the Bible and 
the fire-arm. His maxim was that a sino^le 

o 



6 OKATIOX. 

soul is of more value thjin the conquest of an 
empire, and his weapon of warfare, used effect- 
ively in the expedition with his Indian allies 
against the Mohawks, Avas the arquebuse. He 
bequeathed his name to the newly found l)ody 
of water, and died at Quebec in 1{)35. 

For a century the French laid claim to these 
Avaters and all the adjacent lands. They dotted 
the shores here and there with fortitications, 
and their flag flaunted over forest and wave. 
To protect themselves from hostile savages, 
they erected Fort Sorel, at the Richelieu's 
mouth, in 1041 : Fort St. Louis, at Chambley, 
and Fort 8t. Theresa, on the Sorel, went up 
some years later. Fort St. Ann was built on 
Isle la Motte, in 1665, traces of which, in the 
remains of thirteen little mounds, are visible 
to this day, although constructed by the hands 
of these men of France two hundred and twelve 
years ago. At this era of discover}^ and settle- 
ment, the white population of the entire prov- 
ince of Quebec only e(|ualled the combined 
numbers of this village and House's Point to- 
day, while that of the province of Xew York was 
less than twice the population of our town now. 

Lake Cham[)hdn was the key of Canada, the 
tunnel's end of New York. Its w^aters fur- 
nished a highway for the predatory expeditions 
of the treacherous Iroquois, that roamed through 
all the environing wood, as also for the navies 
of the French and English, Avho engaged in 
frequent bitter strifes. In 1666, you could 
have seen three expeditions of oOO, 800, and 



OIJATION. / 

again of loOO men, move over these waters and 
past these shores south Avard to effect the subju- 
gation of the tierce Mohawks. Bold officers, 
Jesuits, priests, and cannon accompanied, and 
all rushed to battle in the name and for the 
glory of "the Cross." Fort St. Ann was the 
post of rendezvous, and could you have seen 
Isle la Motte on the morning of Septeml^er 28, 
166(3, jon would have heard its shores echo 
with the shrill whoop of the painted savage, 
and the din and stir of military preparation for 
thu coming onset. The cruel enemy was con- 
quered, and twenty years of peace followed. 
But in 1688, war's dread compliment was hotly 
returned, and 1200 Mohawks trailed over the 
soil and the waters of this town northward to 
Canada, and spread terror and devastation on 
all their march through the white man's domain. 
Then the French and English broke peace, 
the war lasting from 1689 to 1697. It was in 
1690 that Schenectady was invaded in tlie dead 
of winter by the savage tribes of Canada, the 
village burned, and its inhabitants butchered 
in cold blood. This soil lay on the route, and 
was the marching ground of the invading foe. 
Then came the English captain John Schuyler, 
and in retaliation burned La Praire; its fort 
being captured the same year by Major Phillip 
Schuyler and his force of 450 men. Going 
and cominof these foes traversed our soil . Count 
de Frontenac, in 1695, followed Schuyler back 
in hostile expedition with 700 French and 
Indians, thus dashing forward and back the 



8 ORATION. 

shuttle-cock of war over the foot of our beau- 
tiful lake. In 1697 came the peace of Ryswick, 
and quiet rei^^ned over these <>Tand old forest 
solitudes until Queen Ann's war in 1702, which 
lasted until 1713. 

It was through Chaniidaiu that the French 
and Indiaus went to plunder Deerfield, Mass., 
in 1704, while the years 1709 and 1711, saw 
the English army from the colonies lighting on 
the soil of Canada. Then to protect their in- 
terests, the French built Fort St. Frederic at 
Crown Point, in 1731, and although the English 
protested, it became for twenty-eight years the 
seat of French power on the lake, and the flag 
of France ruled these shores. 

Assured of their claims, in 1733 and later, 
the governor of Canada issued grants to various 
persojis, of large tracts of lands situated on each 
side of the lake. Sieur Pean, the major of 
the town and castle of Quebec, became the 
claimant of what is now the soil of this town, 
with Chazy, and Isle la Motte, while Sieur de 
Lisle had Alburgh Tongue on the Vermont side. 
Some 800 square miles on both sides of the 
lake were laid claim to in these various grants. 
Sieur Faucault, of the French marines, came 
after a while in possession of Alburgh, and built 
a windmill there in 1744, the remains of whose 
walls are yet standing. A settlement was 
formed about it, and for several years there 
could be observed upon Windmill Point — then 
called Faucault's Point — as many dwellings as 
are found there to-day. The windmill is the 



ORATION. 9 

oldest preserved relic in all these pjirts, built 
now 133 years ago, a memento of another cen- 
tury, and a witness that history repeats itself. 

War came again in 1744, and its desolating 
heel stamped the little colony into the dust. 
When in 1759, Peter Kalm, the traveller, saw 
the place, all was in ruins. Among the names 
of Faucault's settlers was that of Labonte, 
whose posterity subsequently became refugees 
from Canada, and having served in the war of 
the Revolution, to them with others, lands were 
by the state granted in Clinton County. So 
late as the year 1800, the French laid claim' to 
these valley lands, but their claims, although 
in litigation in the courts, could not be estab- 
lished, for in 1763, all our valley and lake 
reverted to the English by conquest, and we 
took them from the English twenty years later, 
to have and hold the same forever. 

In 1755, Isle aux Noix, to the north, first 
became a military post ; and through these 
waters and past these shores went Baron Dies- 
kau, in command of several thousand soldiers 
to take and hold the region about Whitehall. 
Through these waters, in 1760, came Major 
Rodgers, with his brave band of two hundred 
and fifty men, landed on the Chazy shore, 
crossed with a party to Missisco Bay, entered 
Canada, and destroyed the village of St. Fran- 
cis. The main body of his little army pene- 
trated to Isle aux Noix, were seen by the 
enemy, and pursued l)y a force of three hun- 
dred and fifty, and a battle was fought near 



10 ORATION. 

Point ;iii For. Stioiigtheiicd .'shortly l)y three 
hundred Stockhridge Indians, Rodgers made 
our soil, with Windmill Point and Isle la 
Motte, his camping ground, and in June and 
July, one hundred and seventeen j^ears ago, 
our shores and the dim old forest aisles were 
alive with military strife and the crash of war. 
The end came. The French were driven off 
the lake. Montreal surrendered to General 
Amherst. Canada, since 17()o, has heen a 
province of Great Britain. 

In 1763, John Baptiste Lafromhoise and 
others settled on the Chazy shore. It was per- 
haps the first regular settlement of an^' portion 
of what afterwards became Champlain soil; for 
wv are to rememher that all of Chazy was once 
Champlain. Then war routed the new settlers, 
until the peace of 178o. 

In 1777, a hundred years ago, Burgoyne 
swept through this wilderness towards the 
south. He headed an army of 7390 brave sol- 
diers. With 1500 horses he dragged 700 carts 
loaded Avith munitions of war over our soil. 
He occupied the then fortified sites of Point au 
Fer and Isle la Motte. He built a cross- way of 
logs over the impassable flat southward on the 
shore, from the mouth of Chazy river to where 
now is Saxe's Landing. Traces of it remained 
for fifty years. He styled this region at that 
date *'the desert." Like the wolf on the fold 
he came down. Only the year previous the 
Americans had invaded Canada, were defeated, 
and retreated ri2:ht across these lands; and 



OHATrON. 11 

l)ivouacki!ig at Point iiii Fer {incl Isle la Motte, 
dispirited, weary, and smitten with the small- 
pox, buried hundreds of their dead on the soil 
of our town and on the island; then moved 
on southward. In the flush of pride Burgoyne 
followed the retreating and discomforted gen- 
eral, Armstrong. How he styled the Ameri- 
cans "rebels," how he called General Wash- 
ington "Mr. Washington," howMie gave up his 
sword to General Gates, and how Molly Stark 
did not, at Bennington, become a widow, are 
matters of history too well-known to be re- 
peated here. 

Resuming our local history. In 1773, Will- 
iam Gilliland had settlers on the Chazy shore, 
ten miles south of the Canada line. He de- 
clared that these, together with lifty other 
families, near the mouth of the Bouquet river, 
were the first settlements ever made under the 
British government on Lake Champlain. Evi- 
dently the Chazy shore at that date was settled 
by Americans and English. Four years later, 
in 1777, now a century ago, I tind a single 
family named Vinelagh living on old Rouse's 
Point, a narrow strip of land partly removed, 
man}' years since, to form the bank of Fort 
Montgomery. 

In 1774, Point an Fer became a military post. 
B}^ order of General Sullivan, a strong garrison 
house was thereupon erected. It was con- 
structed of stones, surrounded by a stockade, 
and manned. Ethan Allen appeared before it 
with several armed vessels, and from that time 



12 OKATION. 

this point became an important post. For 
twenty-two years the l)niklin<x was known in 
military journals ms the "White House." It. 
was the scene of stirriii": adventure, of imprison- 
ment of captives, rendezvous of passins: arniies, 
and the resort of the most celebrated men of 
the Revolution. On that spot, almost renowned 
by historic association, have stood the feet of 
General Burgoyne, General Armstrong, Gen- 
eral Snllivnn, General Schuyler, Benedict Ar- 
nold, Colonel Ethan iVllen, Colonel Ebenezer 
Allen, Seth Warren, Remember Baker, Gover- 
nor Clinton, after whom our county is named, 
,Benjamin Franklin, of world-wide fame, and 
Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, and others less noted, 
whose names are lost in the mists of years. 

Soil and forest, hilltop and lowland, shore 
and water felt the tramp of war. At times the 
"White House" wore a gay and truly military 
aspect. September 6th, 1775, witnessed 1200 
New York and New England troops assembled 
about it, with numerous vessels carrying eight 
or ten pieces of cannon, anchored near by. 
The next summer eleven naval vessels, with 
sixty-four guns, seventy-eight swivels, and 
manned b}^ three hundred and ninety-five sea- 
men, lay on the waters that divide Windmill 
Point and Point au Fer. Benedict Arnold was 
in command. Hostile Indians attacked a party 
of men wdio had landed on the Rouse's Point 
shore, and the replying cannon from the war 
vessels awakened the echoes of the forest that 



ORATION. 13 

then swept clown close to the water's edge. 
The thunder of the guns was heard at Crown 
Point. The English fleet rode out of the Rich- 
elieu. Arnold fell back; Captain Pringle fol- 
lowed. The- naval engagement at Valcour was 
fought; Ave were beaten, and our brave Eng- 
lish cousins took possession of the lake, to 
abandon it again and forever in a few years. 

The Avar ended in 1783, but it was not until 
1796 that Britain relinquished her hold of these 
Avaters. The English Commodore John Steel, 
Avith his armed brig "Maria," guarded this 
outlet, and covered our shores. Sometimes 
four, sometimes twenty British cannon SAvept 
the Avaters of the harbor. Every American 
vessel loAvered its "peak" and paid obeisance 
to the royal ensign. Steel made a garden on the 
shore and for ninety years it has been knoAvn" 
as "Steel's Garden." Justices in Alburgh, 
Vermont, Avere disturbed in their vocation. 
Every month Steel sent a corporal's guard to 
Judge Moore at Champlain, and Avarned him 
off this soil. Lord Dorchester ordered the 
people for ten miles this side the line to be 
enrolled Avith the militia of Canada. But the 
treaty of amity came, and the la^t red coat 
disappeared from the "White House." It is 
seventy-nine years since Point au Fer held a 
British soldier. Early in this century the old 
garrison house Avas accidentally burned and 
went to ruin. It stood on the north end of the 
Point, and exactly on its romantic site to-day is 
the dAvellinof house of Mr. Richard Scale. 



14 OKATION. 

1 lijive ju!>t sketched in brief the first period 
of discovery, warfare, and impermanent settle- 
ment of the outlet region of Lake Champlain, 
sweeping- rapidly over a term of one hundred 
and seventy-five years. Sic transit anni. I 
now come to another period, the period of 
American settlement, of schools, of churches, 
and permanent civil life. Listen I Behold ! 
I. 

Behind the S(iuaws light bircli canoe 

The steamer's wheels go round, 
And village lots are staked for sale 

Above old Indian mounds. 

II. 

I hear the tread of pioneers, 

Of nations yet to be ; 
The great low Avash of waves, where soon 

Shall roll a hiunan sea. 

IL 

Tradition says that a drunnner hoy, in the 
service of the American army, on its retreat 
•from Canada in 1776, while crossing the river 
which runs through our town, observed to his 
comrades that he should one day return and 
settle on the banks of the stream he was then 
fording. This drunnner boy was Lieutenant 
Pliny Moore, who, when the war had ended, 
nine years later, advanced into this wilderness, 
not as others had come before him, to tent for 
a night, but to stay, to live, to die ; — not for 
purposes of war, but for noble resolves of 
peace. AVith him came many of his comrades 
in the war and some civilians, to the number 
of seventeen, who contributed to the task of 
turnino' this region of forest into the fiuitful 



ORATION. 15 

field. The "Moortield Grant" of land had 
l)een made the settlers, and Mr. Moore came 
iirst with James Savage and Daniel Clark, in 
1785, to snrvey it ; forty of the lots fell to Pliny 
Moore. This square tract contai ns 11, (lOO acres, 
and on it lies the northwest portion of the body 
of our town. It subsequently, as is well- 
known, took the name of the "Smith and 
Graves Patent." 

In 1787, Moore came agtiin, erected a dwell- 
ing house on the site between your National 
Bimk ])uilding and the old Pliny Moore house 
now standing, a sawmill, near where now are 
Whiteside's Paper Mills, and soon after a grist- 
mill, close by the site of yonder iron bridge 
that spans your river. Thus "Champlain Town" 
as it was tlien styled, l)egan to be. A year 
later the town was organized and its civil his- 
tory opened. The act of incorporation is dated 
March 7, 1788. Hence we are within eleven 
years of our centennial. It was a big town. 
It took in all the land south to Plattsburgh and 
all west to St. Lawrence County. It was large 
enough to slice off half a dozen other towns 
from it at various later dates; Chazy, Altona, 
Mooers, Clinton, and Chateaugay at one time 
being territorially parts of Cliamplain. Two 
years later at the first United States' census, 
there was found within its limits a total num- 
ber of 578 souls, or about 100 families ; it 
ranking then as the most populous town in 
Clinton County. 

Previous to the dates given, as early as 1784, 



1 6 ORATION . 

came the Canadian refugee soldiers to whom 
the state had aranted hinds, they first settling 
on the Cliazy shore. Only a few dozen fami- 
lies remained permanent residents, — the most 
sold their lands and went to other parts. Capt. 
James Rouse settled in 1793, on a ridge of 
land just southwest of- Avhere now lies Fort 
Montgomer}', and his name is given to our 
lake village. Others took up lands south of 
the river's mouth, and at Corbeau, now Coop- 
ersville. Their names are still found in our 
history, among the French speaking citizens. 

It is unfortunate that all the town records of 
Champlain, previous to 1793, are lost. On the 
recorcls for that date and down to 1800 I find 
the names of one hundred and eighteen citizens 
who held the various town offices. Some of 
these names are still spoken in our ears; I 
mention those of Moore, Ausline, Bowron, 
Paulant, Converse, Boileau, Dunning, Dewey, 
Corbin, Bleau, Boswc^rth, liandall. North, 
Bateman, Leonard. Alas I how few are living 
to-day who wore their youth and prime four- 
score years ago ! In 1862, I found in our town 
one pair of eyes, that at the age of four, had 
looked upon the old skies and forests of 1788. 
To-day I know of not one such above the sod ! 

I can only skim over the swift-footed years 
of our first two decades. The great State lioad 
down the west side of Lake Champlain was 
opened in 1790. Its terminus was the town, 
and it served to aid the infant colony, forming 
an admirable highway for the advancing tide of 



ORATION. 17 

civilization into these northern wilds. In 1797, 
Pliny and Benjamin Moore opened the fii-st 
land office in this village. That year there was 
a mail to this place from the sonth and east 
once in two weeks, the postage on a letter 
being twenty-five cents. Travel Avns slow, 
Elias Dewey and family occnpied a week on 
their voyage of a hnndred miles, from White- 
hall to our shore, in the sloop "Drowning Boy.' ' 
At the census of 1790, three slaves were put 
down as owned by persons in Champlain ; 
Judge Moore having one — Phillis, a colored 
woman. In 1810, Clinton County was credited 
with having twenty-nine slaves ; in 1820, two 
slaves; in 1830, none. 

The inevitable school teacher came early, 
and so Ions: as^o as 1797, I find the sum of 
$62.56 expended in education, and one John 
Norburn holdino^ the ferule at our loo^-house 
seats of learning, and driving knowledge into 
the heads of youthful Champlainers. Long 
live the ubiquitous school teacher ! Long flour- 
ish the district school house ! Let us part with 
neither while grass grows and water runs. 

Growth was slow. So late as 1800, your 
village flat was dotted here and there with huge 
pine trees, while fallen monarchs of the forest 
and great stumps reposed about the soil, and 
felled across the river formed the only bridge 
at the site of the mill. It was disputed among 
the fathers whether the village should set down 
its feet just here, or still lower down at the 
Rapids. The advocates of the last idea finally 



18 ORATION. 

oave up hope, and Champlain squatted in this 
hollow, and when the hoHow was full ran over 
on the surrounding hills. 

In 1798, the town licensed live ''Taverns." 
The first death was that of Ctiptain Joseph 
Rowe, in 1798, and the first birth was that of 
Ann Moore, the same year; Edward Thurber 
brought the lirst double wagon to roll over our 
roads seventy-eight years ago, and every man 
in town came to see it, and when sixty-six 
years ago Pliny Moore introduced the first 
piano — an old harpsichord — the ladies of his 
family were the envy of everybod}^ far and 
near. 

Very early came the ministers of the Baptist, 
Methodist, and Congregationalist orders, and 
churches were established for the worship of 
God. The dates of the organization of churches 
were as folloAVs : Congregational in 1802, Bap- 
tist in 1804, Methodist in 1800 or 1810, Roman 
Catholic in 1818, Wesleyan in 1843, and the 
Episcopal in 1853. As civilization cannot 
flourish without Christianity, it is well for us 
all to remember to love and cherish these 
blessed institutions, inasmuch as without them 
we are sure to relapse into barbarism. When 
a people go so far as to forget their Maker, 
there is but a step l)etween them and ruin. 

I notice in passing a few odd incidents. In 
1806, a bounty of $20 was offered for each 
wolf's head and ears killed in the town, and a 
tax of fifty cents was put on each dog, of the 
year 1809. I think on the Spitz cur, of 1877, 



OKATION. 19 

there should be a tax of $50. Nov. 26, 1802, 
William Corbin, merchant, was convicted before 
Judge Moore, Justice of the Peace, of the crime 
of selling "one gill of rum by retail, to be 
drank in his house," without having license 
according to laAV. The incident shows the 
old-time reverence for law, and the example 
set by the justice of seventy-five. years ago is 
worthy of imitation by his successors in office 
to-day. 

I make mere mention of the obnoxious "Em- 
bargo" era of 1808, when smuggling was con- 
sidered a virtue, and smugglers were desperate; 
the exciting homicide by the custom-house 
officers of 1809, Elias Drake, a smuggler, being 
the victim ; and the remarkable event of the 
same season when a steamboat, the old first 
"Vermont," first touched our shores, — and 
come to the war of 1812-14. 

As ever previously, Champlain, lying in the 
track of the invading armies, was trampled 
under the feet of war. Her people were se- 
riously inconvenienced, her growth retarded, 
and her interests suffered in the strife. As the 
door of war turned either way upon its harsh 
hinges, she found her lingers in the crack. 
Those three years are crammed full of stirring- 
incidents. AH through them the names of 
Gen. Henry Dearborn, Gen. Joseph Bloomlield, 
Gen. Wade Hampton, Gen, James Wilkinson, 
Gen. Fassett, Gen. Izzard, and the brave Col. 
Forsythe, renowned in war, figured in our his- 
tory. November, 1812, saw Dearborn, Avith 



20 ORATION. 

an aniiy of 5000 regulars and militia, encamped 
in their white tents on the lands of Judge 
Moore. September, 1813, saw Hampton here 
with another army equally as strong, and twice 
the next year cnme Wilkinson and Izzard, with 
nearly as large a fighting force, l)Ut somehow 
Canada was never successfully invaded. 

In August,. 1813, the infamous Col. Murray, 
with a fleet and 900 marines, invaded the lake 
towns, plundering Burlington, Swanton, Platts- 
hurgh and Chazy. Our town did not escape. 
Armed soldiers set the torch to ten block 
houses used as barracks, consuming them to 
ashes, and domineered over our defenceless 
civilians. Only three months later, in Xovem- 
ber, 1000 British soldiers took possession of this 
vilhige, and in retaliation for some petty offence 
committed l)y a few American troops, pillnged 
all the stores, threatened to let loose a horde 
of Indians upon the town, and spread terror all 
aljout for a day and a night. A merciful Prov- 
idence averted the sacking and burning of the 
village. 

The brave Forsythe, with 300 men, guarded 
the toAvn in 1814. He was shot by Captain 
Mayhew's Indians in a skirmish on the Odell- 
town road, and lies buried in your cemetery, 
with no stone to mark the spot. Wilkinson 
w^as here in 1814. Leading 4000 troops, in 
March, with eleven pieces of canncm and one 
hundred cavalry, he attacked the British forces 
at Lacole only to meet with repulse. Then 
Izzard took command of 4500 effective soldiers 



ORATION. 21 

on this vexed frontier. Meiimvhile a host was 
gathering at Isle aux Noix, with intent to in- 
vade the State and capture Albany. Izzard 
strangely moved south, and Clinton County 
was left to defend itself. Bravel}^ it was done. 
The hour of crisis came swiftly on. It was the 
turning point in the strife. As Izzard retreated 
south, the advance guard of the British came 
over the Odelltown road and occupied our vil- 
lage, and the great army of Sir George Provost, 
14,000 strong, immediately followed. For 
twelve hours they tramped over yonder bridge, 
into Main Street, up the hill, into the "State 
Road" southward. As they went the British 
fleet came in sight, and McDonough, whose 
fleet lay most of that summer in King's Bay, 
now passed up the lake to Plattsburgh Bay. 

I pause in details here. How the great army, 
led b}^ brave officers, and sprinkled with the 
veterans of Waterloo, failed to cross the Sa- 
ranac ; how they met an enemy only 3400 
strong and were theirs ; how they failed to 
"plant their garden seeds the next spring in 
Albany ;" and how they came from Plattsburgh 
in less time than the}^ went, you all know, and 
may be some of you remember. I will not 
repeat the story. Let the old enmity die. 
We feel just as sweet toward our Canadian and 
English cousins to day as if that army and fleet 
had never come. It was the master event that 
virtually closed the strife on this frontier. 

The following are the names of those citizens 
of this town who, in that perilous hour when 



22 



ORATION. 



our liberties were menaced, took up arms in 
defence of home and country. They are worthy 
of record here, and I call the roll of honor: 



Ahaz Albee 
Charles Bedlow 
Joseph Bindon 
John Beagle 
Peter Beagle 
Aurelius Beaumont 
Francis Bleau 
Wm. H. Beaumont 
Uriah Bedlow 
Jonathan E. Bond 
William Blakeney 
Josiah Corl)in 
Darius Churchill 
Wm. J. Churchill 
Moses Cross 
Thomas Cooper 
AYilliam Corpe 
James Downs 
Augustus Dumas 
Benjamin Hinds 
Isaac Hay ford 
Lorenzo Kellogg 
Robert Stetson 
Keuben Stetson 
Robert Stetson Jr. 
Calel) Smith 
Ezra Thurber 
John Watrous 



Abijah Xorth 
Freeman Xye 
Marshall Newton 
Witt Lain 
Alexis Lavally 
Joseph Lavally 
Daniel Moore 
William Mooers 
J. Morse 
James Masten 
Daniel Moore 2nd 
Elihu Potter 
Luther Pangman 
Pliny Rogers 
Solomon X. Rouse 
John Randall 
Louis Rouse 
Mitchell Rouse 
James Rider 
Abel Rider 
Jonathan Slater 
Joel Savage 
John Trask 
Isaac Town 
Thomas Whipple 
George Weeks 
Seneca Warner 
Lyman AA'riirht 



Daniel T. Taylor 
A few of these are with us to-day. Their 



ORATION. 23 

sons do them honor. But the great majority 
sleep in peaceful graves where the sound of 
battle disturbs no more. The years flew by. 

Now came again blessed peace. Departed 
settlers returned; school houses were multi- 
plied ; churches established ; commerce flour- 
ished. I can only mention in passing rapidly 
through the decades, — the remarkable cold 
summer of 1816, when it froze in every month 
of the season ; the commencing to erect a fort 
on Island Point, the same year, which was two 
years later found to be in Canada, nicknamed 
*'Fort Blunder," and abandoned to decay ; the 
visit of James Madison to this place, July 27, 
1817, — it being the first and only visit to this 
town by any acting president of the United 
States; the decease, Aug. 18, 1822, of the 
earl}' pioneer, Pliny Moore ; the establishment 
of the first printing press at Rouse's Point, in 
1823, and the publication, by Samuel Hull 
Wilcocke, of our first newspaper, viz., "The 
Rouse's Point Harbinger and Champlain Politi- 
cal and Literary Compendium" ; the wonderful 
revival of the lumber interest, then and since, 
by the completion of the Champlain canal the 
same year, that gave a new impetus to that 
branch of business in all this region; the first 
Temperance Society, under the great Wash- 
ingtonian movement, in 1828 ; the great fire of 
Nov., 1831, that consumed the old Nichols 
Hotel and three stores ; the awful visitation of 
the cholera, in 1832 ; and to end this catalogue, 
the extraordinary snow storm of May 13 and 



24 OK AT I ON. 

14, 1834, when snow fell to ;i depth of ten 
inches, and drifted in places two feet deep. 

The years rolled swiftly by. You remember 
the rebellion in Canada in 1838-39, that dis- 
turbed us not a little; the two battles fought, 
one exactly where the railroad crosses the line, 
at the four corners near C. E. Cronkrites store, 
the other at the old stone church at Odelltown ; 
the shooting at the first Inittle of Aunchnian, 
and the narroAv escape of citizen O. B. Ash- 
man ; the burning of buildings; the kidnapping 
of persons from our soil ; the seizure of vessels 
and ammunition of war ; the presence of sol- 
diery ; and the exasperated and excited state of 
many minds. 

Then war's red hand again vanished ; and 
you can easier recall those events in your his- 
tory, the dedication of your acndemy in 1842, 
and the public burning of Bibles at Corb^au 
the same year; the thrilling and yet mistaken 
expectation of the end of Time, in 1843-44; 
and the commencement of Fort Montgomery, 
on the exact site of Fort Blnnder, in the year 
1844. Easier still do we all remember 1850, 
with the view to our delighted eyes of the first 
locomotive and cars, over the Ogdensburgh 
R. R. ; the iron highway to Boston and Mon- 
trenl, 1850-51, and the great bridge across 
where floated long ago Champlain's birch canoe, 
now linking with bands of iron New England 
and the Empire State. Leaping on a decade, 
past the unprecedented hail storm that devas- 
tated our fields and houses in 



ORATION. 25 

rarest, most destructive flood ever witnessed in 
our river, in 1857, I come to — 

The war for the Union, 1861-64. Here I 
tread well-remembered ground. When the 
summons rang out on the air for men and 
money to save the nation, and E Plurihus 
Unum was to be demonstrated in tears and 
blood, old Champlain was not behind in action. 
Money was poured out like water, volunteers 
joined the ranks, and one family, that of Fran- 
cis Matott, gave eight sons for service, who all 
shouldered their rifles and marched to the front. 
The total number of enlisted men and officers 
that stoutly went forth from home and friends 
to the deadly strife was two hundred and ninety- 
three. Of this numl)(;r two were captives in 
Libby Prison, four were incarcerated in An- 
dersonville, two of them dying of starvation ; 
three lost an arm in defence of the country, 
twenty-five received wounds in the fight, twelve 
died in camp and hospital, and eighteen laid 
down their lives on the bloody field of battle, 
seven of the eighteen falling at Antietam. 
Thus, your husbands, your sons, your brothers, 
welded the shattered union with their blood, 
or bear the empty sleeves, or wear the glorious 
scars, — honor to the l^oys in blue ! 

Staunch brothers, who iii woe or weal, 
When dastards cower and tp-ants hate, 

The patriotic heart-throbs feel. 

And stand by oiir good ship of state. 

Citizens, let us view Champlain as she is to-day. 

From the howling forests and swamps of a 

hundred years ago, we are come to a landscape 



2() ORATION . 

of beauty, of smiling fields, of green meadows, 
of orderly highways, and gardens of flowers. 

From the little hut erected b^^ Judge Moore 
ninety years ago, we come to count more than 
lOOO^hvellings, in 1875. 

From a population of 578, in 1790, she has 
risen in numl)ers to 5314, at the state census of 
1875, meanwhile reducing her size from an 
area equal to Clinton County, to some 30,000 
acres, or 50 square miles of cultivated and 
wood land. 

From a business of perhaps $10,000 in 1800, 
she has come to one of a quarter or a half a 
million in our time. 

From a total town expense of $500, in 1820, 
and but $38,000 in the fort3'-two years between 
1814 and 185(3, she has gone on to-da}^ to an 
annual expense of $4000, $5000, and $6000. 
From a total average value of real and personal 
estate of but $1,500,000 in all of Clinton County 
during the years from 1814 to 1850, w^e have 
come to a valuation of some $3,200,000 in this 
town alone in 1870. 

From the one hundred voters our fathers 
could summon to the polls, ninety years ago, 
we have come to see an army of a 1000 men 
march up to the ballot-box in bloodless yet 
strong array. 

From the old ox- cart mode of travel of the 
year 1800, we have moved down to the realiza- 
tion of fifteen miles of steam rail, whose road- 
bed occupies one hundred and twenty acres. 

From the days when it took a w^eek to reach 



ORATION. 27 

US from Whitehall, and when the tirst steam- 
boats conveyed passengers but four miles an 
hour, we have rushed into the marvellous era 
of a speed of 30 miles an hour, and roll to 
Whitehall or Oo'densburo^h in four hours. 

From a semi-monthly mail, with postage on 
each single letter twenty-five cents, in 1790, 
we have come to the daily or twice a day mail, 
with postage reduced 800 per cent on letters, 
and a postal card to San Francisco or to London 
for one cent. 

Once it required days to convey a thought to 
and from friends in Boston and New York, 
now we flash our thoughts to the great centres 
of our country in a moment. Once, weeks 
were occupied in getting a newspaper from its 
office of publication in the cities to our homes ; 
to-day we read tlie morning city dailies by the 
light of our evening lamp, and yesterday's news 
from all Europe and the Eastern Hemisphere, 
also, before we sit down to our breakfast. 

From our school house, in 1800, we have 
come to count a dozen, with an academy. 

A single first sheet sprang into existence, in 
1823 ; since then nine others, with as man}' 
different editors, have flourished the quill in 
our midst; two of these with a monster priuting 
and book publishing house, exist to-day. 

A single church edifice, constructed of logs, 
and costing $100, stood up in 1818 ; now we 
count up eight noble church edifices, the es- 
timated value of which is $46,000. 

All that civilization, art, science, culture. 



2S .ORATION. 

literature, thrift, inventive skill, and Chiis- 
tianity can give us is our own. O people highly 
exalted ! O land of freedom and of lisfht ! 
Who can count thy privileges, or put a price 
upon thy blessings ! I have spoken of the 
days of strife, when — 

AMiether on the scaffold high, 

Or in the battle's van, 
The noblest place a man could die, 

"Was Avherc he died for man. 

But no less in peace than w^ar hath Cham- 
plain had her victories. Besides furnishing 
fifty-eight or more men for the state defence in 
1814, and two hundred and ninety-three others 
to save the Union in 1864, our town has turned 
out for the use of society in religious life eight- 
een clergymen and three missionaries to foreign 
and Indian lands; in the medical profession 
twenty-four physicians ; in the legal line fifteen 
law'yers, foui- district attorneys, and eight or 
nine judges of the city, county, and state ; in 
literary life a college professor, several editors, 
with a number of authors ; in state office fifteen 
assembly men, and in national two members of 
Congress ; in civil life forty-live magistrates, 
all of whom began their career or were born in 
this toW'U, and have served or are serving their 
day and generation to the best of their ability, 
none of w^hom I trust have lived in vain, but 
in their sphere have blessed the world. 

To-day the hallowed name of Washington 
rings sweetly, sul)limely, down the corridors of 
time. Peace be to his ashes. While the Old 
World dynasties come and 20, in ceaseless 



ORATION. , 21> 

mutation, the nation whose independence he 
won, whose freedom he founded, exists un- 
changed in its greatness and glory. The spec- 
tacle of 45,000,000 of free people, covering a 
broad screen land that stretches to the settino- 
sun, is a wonderful one indeed. Nowhere else 
on earth do we behold another like it. 

Breathes there a man with soul so dead, 
Who never to himself hath said, 
This is my own, my native land ? 

Let us love our country. Let all her sover- 
eign people assist, not to divide and disgrace 
her, but to make her united, pure, and grand. 
Long may her star of destiny as a nation shine 
brightly in the zenith. Long may its brilliancy 
attract the eastern peoples. Long may she 
prove the asylum of the oppressed. Long may 
her institutions of learning and religion abide. 
Long may her church spires, glittering in the 
sunlight, point upward to the skies. Lona' 
may this L^nion live, forming a nationality ven- 
erated and peerless, one and indissoluble, while 
time lasts. The land is broad, sirs, but there 
is "room in the air for only one flas:." Lon2 
may ]t wave I 

Fellow Citizens: To ensure our prosperity 
as a nation and a community, there are four 
things for us to do and remember. First, and 
highest of all life's duties and opportunities, 
we must hold sacred, and to the best of our 
ability, now and always, cherish and maintain 
all the ordinances and institutions of our Chris- 
tian religion, never for one moment ceasing our 
allegiance in supremest loyalty to our God and 



30 ORATION. 

his good cause. 

Second: We must with iron wills preserve 
uncorrupt and environed with intelligence and 
moral sense, the ballot box. He whose hands 
hold a vote is a sovereign, and his record in 
association with this symbol of power should 
in its sphere be spotless. 

Third: Inasmuch as seventy-live per cent of 
the crime, misery, and pauperism, with death 
of conscience, in all our broad land, is caused 
directly and indirectly by the use of intoxicat- 
ing beverages, we must insist from year 'to 
year upon their curtailment, if not their banish- 
ment from society. Happy for us all, gentle- 
men, when our voters, a thousand strong, march 
in solid phalanx to the polls and by the might 
of their suffrages cast down this throne of iniq- 
uity, and stamp the master vice under their feet. 

Fourth: We must retain the common school. 
It is the legacy of our fathers. It is the heri- 
ta<2:e of our sons and dau2:hters. It must sur- 
vive superstition and bigotry. It must be 
stamped with immortality as one of our indis- 
pensable institutions. I cry to heaven to palsy 
the hand, whenever and wherever thrust ma- 
liciously or mistakenly forth, that seeks to rob 
us of our public-school system. 

Doing these things we shall survive. But if 
Christianity, virtue, temperance, and education 
dies, the Republic will die, and liberty planted 
upon our shores fresh from the May Flower 
two centuries and a half ago, will take her 
everlasting tlight. Be it ours to keej) her with 



OKATION. 31 

118, founded upon the principles I urge to-day, 
and rooted deep in the virtues of our people. 

Citizens ! To-day we are no strangers. To- 
day let us move heart to heart and hand in 
hand. Let us be loyal to our native town, 
and true to each other. We stand together on 
the soil that gave us birth. Together we testify 
our reverence for the memory of the fathers. 
We re-kindle recollections of the long gone 
past. We waken the most hallowed associa- 
tions. The manly mould, the hardy enterprise, 
the patient endurance, the unconquerable en- 
ergy, and devoted piety of our sires furnish 
example for the sons. Had they virtues? let 
us imitate them. Had they vices? let us shun 
them. Few are the links that bind us to the 
olden time. Some frosted heads, alas, how 
few ! can witness for a l)y-gone century ; all are 
passing away. 

It is ever profitable to refer to the past. 
History may be painful, but it is full of instruc- 
tion. But time moves on wdth swift and noise- 
less wing. The dead past is no more our own. 
The living, pulsating present is ours. The 
tomb yearns for us all. 

And all within our graves shall sleep 

A hundred years to come. 
No living soul for us will weep 

A hundred years to come. 

And while the white throne summons every 
soul, I call you to high resolves and noble 
deeds. For 

Time will end oiu- story ; 
But no time if we live well 

Will end our glorv. 



ERRATA 



Seth Warren, page 12, line 12, should be, Seth Warner. 
0. B. Ashman, page 24, line 11, should be, O. B. Ashmun. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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